Dress to Excess

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Maybe I’m turning in to a prude as I get older but I’m starting to take offense to the way female news anchors and reporters—at least on local Los Angeles stations—are dressing these days.

When did evening wear become appropriate clothing to deliver news? I don’t know about you, but I’m not really inclined to get my information about the world from a woman tottering in her 5-inch heels and squeezed into a mini dress. I don’t get the sense that she really cares about the latest bombing in Afghanistan (does she even know where that is or did her news writer spell it phonetically for her?) or about the bodies of eight CIA agents being sent home. She looks like she’s ready to bolt out of the studio and over to Studio 54 (yeah, it’s a dated reference; sue me) the second she’s done with her segment.

The line between entertainment and journalism seems to be a little blurred these days. It’s bad enough that the lead story on the 11:oo o’clock news is usually entertainment related, but it’s hard to take a woman dressed as Jillian Barberie Journalism Barbie seriously when she looks like she’s working for “Entertainment Tonight” or “Extra.”

Journalism Barbie

That’s not to say that female reporters and news anchors need to dress like men to be successful or taken seriously, but I do think dressing professionally is a level of respect—for both the viewers and the job itself. Maybe I’m just old-school that way. And, yeah, it’s totally judgmental. But think about it: Would Diane Sawyer dress like a Bratz doll with press credentials to interview Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Would you respect her if she did? Katie Couric doesn’t dress like a model in a Bebe catalog to get—or tell—the story.

Diane Sawyer

Maybe it’s because of the 24-hour news cycle—networks think they need something other than solid reporting to get (and keep) the viewers attention. Maybe it’s just the way the women feel like dressing. I don’t know.

Comments

I completely agree. I hate to chalk it up to getting older, but I really think that “what is appropriate” has devolved over the years. It’s gone beyone “sex sells”, and into the absurd. I don’t want to see bewbs when I see the news. It grosses me out!

I agree too. The lines between news and entertainment are completely blurred. I suppose they’ve done their studies and discovered that no one wants to watch a middle-aged woman in business attire deliver the news. If the news bimbos weren’t being gobbled up by the masses they’d stop featuring them and get back to real news.
.-= XUP´s last blog ..Shortcuts =-.

I think just about all the news is presented like ‘Entertainment Tonight’ and that’s really not a plus to me. I’m sick of hearing about what famous person is screwing who, and yet no information about things that should be on the news – the economy, wars, world political situation, etc. My rule of thumb is that if the anchor looks like a hooker, I will not watch.

And why is it always women that they dress so spectacularly inappropriately? You never see a male anchor dressed in a shirt that is open to the waist with his big gold chains showing. LOL
.-= Kimberly´s last blog ..Buying Tires at Costco =-.

I’d pay to see Anderson Cooper deliver the news without a shirt, but I don’t think that’ll happen!

I like my gossip and entertainment but if I turn on the 11 o’clock news, that’s not what I’m looking for. I don’t want to see some chick with her boobs out and her hair teased and bleached to death. There’s a certain amount of credibility that comes with dressing appropriately.

So it was a bit of a shock when I moved to Montreal and the women dressed as if they stopped by on their way out to a (very nice) club. They didn’t look slutty or cheap, but let’s just say they didn’t exactly downplay their sexuality.

And this was on both the English- and the French-speaking news.

The men? I have absolutely no recollection of their wardrobe. Perhaps they simply wore the universal male uniform: shirt-tie-jacket, or shirt-tie-sweater. Hell, maybe they even wore the same thing day after day—men can get away with that.

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I'm surly and snarky, and I blog about my life. I spoil my two dogs, I love martinis and coffee, am addicted to yoga, watch too much reality TV, and if the "F word didn’t exist, I'd be rendered mute. For more about me, go here.